Wa Lone (left) and Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced to seven years in prison in September.
Photograph: Lynn Bo Bo/EPA

The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has pledged to make the fight to release of two Reuters journalists imprisoned by the Burmese government a top priority for the coming year.

Last week, Hunt met the human rights barrister Amal Clooney, who is representing Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. Clooney gave him a copy of a children’s book written by Wa Lone.

“It is appalling that these two men have been imprisoned for nothing more than being good journalists and shedding light on the unspeakable atrocities carried out by the Burmese military in Rakhine against the Rohingya people,” said Hunt, who has written a Christmas card to the men.

“My card won’t free them. But I want them to know that they have not been forgotten and that people across the globe continue to campaign for their freedom.”

He said he had given a personal commitment to Clooney that he would marshal the Foreign Office’s resources to fight for the men’s release. “I want to be absolute clear that the British government will continue to demand the release of these two reporters,” he said.

Clooney has been representing the men since the spring but has only recently begun to make public appearances in connection with the case.

The two men were convicted on 3 September under Myanmar’s official secrets act and sentenced to seven years in prison. They had been investigating state violence against Rohingya Muslims.

The children’s book, a parable about the value of journalism, tells the story of an inquisitive boy, Jay Jay, who sets out to discover why cattle in his village are falling ill and discovers it is because of pollution from a local factory.

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Hunt put the men’s plight in the context of a sustained campaign against independent reporters, including the murder of the Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabian agents.

Reporters Without Borders recorded an increase in the number of journalists killed and imprisoned worldwide this year.

Hunt plans to host a conference on media freedom in the new year, which could put the UK at loggerheads with some of its closer allies including Turkey, Egypt and the Gulf states. He said: “Only with a free press, reporting without fear of intimidation, can democracies succeed.”